The Evolution of Talent Management

Hiring is a costly process. What many companies don’t realize is the lost potential after employees are hired. Nurturing acquired talent is a new idea; many used to think once a company recruited good employees, the management process is over. Now talent management exists as a science rather than a loose framework.

The Inception of Talent Management

Although the term would not be coined for centuries, the industrial era set the stage for talent management with factories and workshops that needed qualified staff. Workforce managers sorted through pools of applicants to find the most experienced workers for tasks such as cloth manufacturing, basket making, carpentry, wood milling, and much, much more. Their processes were somewhat streamlined, but still generally scattered and far from the organizational processes that comprise the term today.

Houston, We Have a Problem

With the rise of World War II and so many eligible workers being shipped off to war, the United States and other countries hit a human capital crisis, thrusting women into the workforce in larger numbers than ever before. With them came a diversified workforce and the need to hire applicants that could perform a range of increasingly complex duties. This era gave rise to some of the organizational structures that still exist today, such as careful screening processes as well as an array of job-matching techniques.

Enter the Awesome Terminology!

The word “talent management” was coined in a 1998 paper entitled “The War for Talent,” written by Elizabeth G. Chambers, Mark Foulon, Helen Handfield-Jones, Steven M. Hankin and Edward G. Michaels III. The crux of the paper is that top talent is necessary for organizations that want to be adaptable, decisive and successful, but that companies frequently find themselves unable to fill these key positions. The answer? A talent management process that helps you attract and retain employees through the creation of key value propositions and development of an attractive workplace environment.

Talent Management Today

Today, HR departments devote significant resources to talent management. Most organizations have developed carefully streamlined processes to help them hire the right people, train them well, keep them happy and ensure that their benefits (pay, promotions, perks, etc.) successfully keep them around. Many even use a talent management system to help organize all of this data in a single place. Increasingly, however, companies recognize that talent management must permeate all departments of an organization to ensure that good people stay over the long haul.